Crowd control
This term is usually abbreviated as CC and is used to refer to the act of controlling the flow of a given battle, such as the Mage's Snare and Root spells in the line, or their Polymorph ability. Crowd Control also involves aggro management, both sides of CC serving to keep attackers doing exactly what the Party wants them to do; or at the very least, not doing what the party doesn't want them to do, which is kill valuable members. It is important to note that Mages are not the only class with crowd control abilities, although Polymorph is probably the most often cast crowd control spell. See also: Root, Snare, Charm, Sleep, Stun, and Fear. = Crowd Control Ability Comparison By Class = Here is a breakdown on crowd control by class: Mage Polymorph is the most well-known crowd control ability, but mages also have Frost Nova which can freeze mobs in place for about 8 seconds. This can give you enough time to back away and heal, or allow the mage to cast just out of the frozen mobs' melee range. The mage's line of spells can also be considered crowd control, almost all of them snare enemies. Priest Mind Control is used by the priest to charm a mob and essentially make them part of your team. The priest cannot use their own skills while mind controlling, so it is often best used to mind control mobs that heal. The priest can then use the mob's mana to heal the party while at the same time removing that mob from actively fighting against you. If you mind control a mob in the center of a group before your party aggros them, the other mobs will all turn on the mind controlled one instead of you. Priests also have Shackle Undead, which works just like polymorph but against undead targets. This is a powerful spell that is often forgotten. At lower levels, a priest can use Psychic Scream, but only works on two mobs at a time and lasts for a very short time. Higher levels of the spell affect up to five mobs at a time. Good for emergencies. Rogue Sap is done by stealthing up to a mob and knocking them out. If no damage is done the mob will remain unconscious for 30-45 seconds (depending on the level of the rogue's sap skill). Any damage will wake them up. This also must be done before aggro, out of combat. Sap knocks a rogue out of stealth as soon as it is used, so the Rogue will have to run back to the group with the rest of the group in tow. Rogues with a full three ranks in the Improved Sap talent have a 90% chance to remain stealthed after sapping a mob. This way, the rogue can simply back away in stealth and the pull can then proceed. In some cases if things go badly, it is best for a rogue to Vanish rather than run back to the group with all the aggroed mobs. Warrior Warrior crowd control differs from most other classes in that instead of keeping monsters out of the fight, they have abilities that keep the ones that are fighting firmly locked on the warrior, who is best equipped to tank. To this end, warriors have Taunt, Mocking Blow, and Challenging Shout, which force an enemy (or enemies, in the case of Challenging Shout) to target the warrior. Note that these abilities do not work on players. Warriors also have more "traditional" crowd control abilities: *Hamstring - a snare *Piercing Howl - a talent-based snare *Intimidating Shout - a combination Taunt and Fear Effect, grabbing the attention of one enemy and causing the rest in range to run away *Charge and Intercept - stuns *Concussion Blow and Mace Specialization - talent-based stuns Druid Hibernate is used to put beasts or dragonkin to sleep and works just like polymorph; hit the mob and they wake up. Many players do not even realize that druids can do this skill. In outdoor zones druids can also use Entangling Roots to keep a mob at a distance for a short time. Damage done to the rooted mob increases the chance of them breaking free early. Hunter The hunter has a huge array of crowd control abilities, giving the hunter the potential to be highly influential in altering the course of combat. Sleep effects *Freezing Trap is put on the ground prior to combat and puts the first enemy that walks over the trap to sleep. Duration upto 25 seconds. This is effective on virtually every type of mob, even most minor bosses, e.g. Highlord Omokk, Shadow Huntress. Although a hunter can only place a trap when out of combat, a second trap can be placed after the first has triggered by a hunter dropping out of combat using feign death. This can increase the duration of crowd control by the mob waking up and immediately being re-frozen in the second trap. *Wyvern Sting (version 1.7) a shot/spell that sleeps a mob for 12 seconds then does arcane damage over the next 12 seconds (600 for level 60). As this is a tier 7 Survival Talent not every hunter will have this. Aggro Control *Feign Death - allows a hunter to drop out of combat, thus dumping all previous threat that a mob has on a hunter for that session of combat. On success the mob then attacks the player or pet with the second most threat, hence caution should be used when using this as that may be a healer. *Disengage - Mele ability that attempts to take the hunter out of combat with a mob. *Distracting Shot - Ranged shot that increases threat, typically used to pull threat off another player. Pet abilities: *Growl - auto cast that increases the threat of a pet *Cower - auto cast that decreases threat of a pet Snare, Root & Stun *Frost Traps trigger an area of effect snare that slows movement of all enemies in the radius of the trap. *Concussive Shot - ranged that slows a mob for 5 seconds, with talents can be upgraded to give a chance of snarring the mob for 5 seconds, useful for slowing runners. *Wing Clip - mele that slows a mob for 5 seconds, useful for slowing runners. *Scatter Shot - ranged that stuns the mob for 5 seconds. *Counterattack - a survival talent that causes damage and roots the mob for 5 seconds. Fear *Scare Beast. Tanking Hunters can also off tank either themselves and/or with their pets. Paladin Paladins are a mixed bag of Crowd Control, with variety of abilities to both control aggro and shields prevent their damage(see Paladin for more info on shields). A paladin has two direct Crowd Control abilities. Turn Undead is a medium duration Fear Effect (albiet only castable on Undead creeps; not players). Hammer of Justice is a stun ability witha 1 minute cooldown. Blessing of Salvation is a very indirect Crowd Control, lowering the amount of hate a Blessed party member generates. Seal of Fury does the opposite for holy damage sources, increasing their threat (this source hopefully being the paladin himself). Paladins can also get Repentance as a talent from the Protection tree. It is a 6 second sleep, has a 20 yard range and a 1 minute cooldown. Shaman A well-placed Earthbind totem or Frost Shock can temporarily snare mobs at critical moments. Warlock Seduction is used by the succubus pet and works much like Polymorph: Hit the mob and they drop out of seduction. Seduction only affects humanoids, and the succubus channels this spell. Warlocks also have Banish, which can remove a demon or elemental from a fight. The demon is immune to damage while banished. Like Sap, Polymorph, and Mind Control, a warlock can only banish one demon target at a time. A warlock can also use Fear, but this also only works on one target at a time. On the other hand, Howl of Terror fears five targets from the warlock's vicinity for a shorter duration than Fear. Even so, a warlock can keep at least two monsters running at once with Fear; fearing the first, then the second when the first is some distance away (breaking the fear spell on the first) then re-fearing the first when he gets back, causing a sort of fear relay that takes a lot of the Warlock's attention. ---- Category:Game Terms